Nintendo Wii Fanboy

What ho, chaps! This morning yielded jolly splendid (if totally expected) news for Nintendo from the UK: according to GfK Chart Track figures, the Wii is (to use a British colloquialism) kicking arse in the land of tea and crumpets.

Over the last 12 months, 2.5 million Wii consoles have been sold in Britain, swelling the total installed base to 3.6 million units. That means one in every 16.93 Brits is waggling a Wiimote -- not a bad figure, considering the console launched only twenty-two months ago. Furthermore, high street retailer The Game Group estimates that the Wii will have hit 4.9 million units in Blighty by Christmas. Gosh!/Blimey!/Etc.

To see how the competition fared (spoiler: not very well), hit the break!

It looks like we should've taken those book sales as an indication of how hungry Star Wars fans were for something new. The latest game to bear the Star Wars name, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, has managed to sell a whopping 1.5 million copies in its first 5 days on shelves. The Force is strong with ... uh, yeah. Sorry.

Darrell Rodriguez, president of LucasArts, didn't expect such high numbers, apparently. "We're blown away by the response to the game." So, how many of you picked up the game? Did it blow you away or have you found it to be sub-par?

When we think of what games could possibly be the top 5 for the Wii, it doesn't seem like there's much room for mystery. Those that follow the monthly NPD numbers will likely be able to recite the top 5, in order, off the top of their heads. So, let's get to it!

The top 5 games of 2008 so far according to the NPD are:

1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl
2. Mario Kart Wii (with wheel)
3. Wii Play
4. Wii Fit (with Balance Board)
5. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (with guitar)

We're amazed at how well GH3 still continues to do on the Wii. Obviously, Wii Play is no surprise, as it's a constant fixture in the top software titles month after month. And we have a feeling that Wii Fit would be higher on the list if only more people could actually find it.

We kind of doubted the story, but with a Square Enix RPG releasing, along with a price cut, we can understand how the Japanese public might snatch up a bunch of Xbox 360s.

[Via X3F]

We're getting some conflicting viewpoints on the Wii supply this holiday season from Gamestop's upper management. While CEO Dan DeMatteo is of the mind that there is no end in sight for Wii shortages, one of the company's vice presidents is telling us a different story. It's VP of Merchandising Bob McKenzie, to be exact, and he thinks that things this holiday will be ""much, much better than it has been the last two years."

McKenzie elaborated further, saying that he can't guarantee they "will be in stock every day throughout the holiday season," but feels confident that the "current flow we've seen coming from Nintendo on Wii hardware" will help them meet their business model. Some of our readers point out that they see Wii consoles sitting on shelves collecting dust all of the time, but what about areas with dense population such as major cities? Will they be seeing some relief finally? We guess we'll just have to wait and see how things go in the next couple of months.

[Via Joystiq]

The end of the world must be nigh, for we never thought we'd see the day where the Wii was outsold by the Xbox 360 in Japan. Sure enough, with Microsoft cutting the price of the console, sales have seen a boost over there. The week ending September 14th saw the Xbox 360 selling 28,681 units, while the Wii only moved 27,057 units. Close, but this isn't horse shoes or hand grenades, kiddies.

Aside from Microsoft cutting the price of their console, a number of other factors helped contribute to the Xbox 360 selling so well. For one, a new Square Enix RPG released there this week, by the name of Infinite Undiscovery, and Microsoft also came out with a new Xbox 360 SKU. We're not holding a grudge, though. Microsoft can enjoy their short time in the spotlight. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have to go sabotage the jump jets on Bill Gates' diamond-encrusted jetpack.

[Via Edge]

Back in April, we reported three key staffers at Retro Studios had vacated their offices and turned in their letters of resignation. These three individuals were design director Mark Pacini, art director Todd Keller and technology engineer Jack Mathews. Speculation was the three left to start their own company. Well, that's what happened.

The three have announced their new company, Armature Studio, has signed a "long-term, exclusive" publishing deal with games giant Electronic Arts. Armature and EA were both, obviously, excited about the move. "We are very excited about trying to rethink how games are developed for this generation of consoles, and our partners at EA have been nothing but supportive in this pursuit," said Pacini. "What really gets me going is that now, no platform is off limits. That is just something we didn't have the ability to do before." "I can't begin to describe how thrilled I am to be working with the talented team that created such an amazingly well-crafted series of games," said Louis Castle of EA, whom would be acting executive producer on the future Armature games.

With Retro Studios making such wonderful games on Nintendo hardware, it would appear these three key players aren't going to be favoring the Wii, sadly. Pacini really wants to see what the other consoles are about, commenting that "now, no platform is off limits. That is just something we didn't have the ability to do before."

[Via Joystiq]

Nintendo is at the top of their game. They've been raking in the cash ever since the DS and Wii hit the scene. According to the Financial Times, Nintendo as a company is so good that each of its employees makes more money for the company than those that work at Google and Goldman Sachs, two of the most profitable companies in the world.

So how much does each employee generate in business for the house that Mario built? Well, it's around $1.6 million this year. That figure blows your mind, just as it does ours, we're sure, but Nintendo estimates each employee is worth even more than that, as the company accounts for some salaries as R & D spending.

We've all been waiting for Nintendo to hit the ceiling, but it appears there's none in sight. The company keeps growing and profits keep soaring, so we doubt if we'll see the company slow down anytime soon.

Wow, talk about dominating the list, Madden NFL 09 has crushed the competition in August, even though it released in the middle of the month. That hasn't stopped it from selling well over 2 million copies, across all platforms. As for hardware, well, it's basically the same story:

- DS: 518.3K 89.7K (-14.75%)
- Wii: 453K 102K (-18.37%)
- PSP: 253K 31.3K (12.49%)
- Xbox 360: 195.2K 9.6K (-4.68%)
- PS3: 185.4K 39.5K (-17.56%)
- PS2: 144.1K 11.4K (-7.33%)

Head past the break for the software figures.

Wii Fit is helping all kinds of retailers make money. In fact, the fitness bundle from Nintendo is still hard to find. Now, we hear that the package helped drive profits up for retailer Toys R Us. During Q2 of last year, the retailer had a loss of $42 million. This year, the company turned profits of $13 million.

We all know Michael Pachter has no problem tossing his two pennies around, and his estimations for the month of August might surprise some of you. When it comes to sales, the Wedbush Morgan analyst sees Nintendo making around $100 million on software. As for hardware, it's a different story, as a decline is expected.

"Because the U.S. has received only around 1/3 of total Wii production to-date, instead of a more normal 40 percent, there has been a severe shortage of Wii supply here that has yet to let up," says Pachter. He thinks that the supposed production increase won't take effect in North America until September.

See also: GameStop CEO sees no 'end in sight' for Wii shortages

GameDaily recently sat down with GameStop CEO Dan DeMatteo to discuss, well, things that a CEO of a huge company would discuss. What is of note to us Wii enthusiasts, however, is his grim outlook for the future. He doesn't see store shelves stocked full of Wii consoles anytime soon, unfortunately. "I don't see a near-term end in sight for Wii shortages, not unless they really ramp up supply," DeMatteo said. "I think they've ramped it up 20 percent or so, but Nintendo is fairly cautious by nature. They ramped it up 20 and it's still evaporating."

This is only one man's opinion, but based on how much money he probably makes each year, we're sure his estimate is better than ours. So, for you holiday shoppers that have someone on your list asking for Wii, better get to hunting one down now. In little over a month, we're sure they're going to be a lot harder to track down.

Is the Xbox 360 vessel struggling to stay afloat in the murky waters of the console race? Well, not quite, but Microsoft bigwig Don Mattrick doesn't sound convinced that his company will reclaim first place from the Wii. "I'm not at a point where I can say we're going to beat Nintendo," he told Business Week. He's probably correct. The Wii continues to outsell the 360 in every region, with only the small Polynesian island of Tuvalu holding out.*

But Mattrick isn't preparing the lifeboats just yet, to take our tortured ships/consoles analogy one step further. "We will sell more consoles this generation than Sony," says he. Like we care, Mattrick. It's all about number one, baby!

* This just in: Wii took over there as well.

[Via Go Nintendo]

It looks like the proposed takeover by Square Enix didn't take, as Tecmo has revealed they'll be merging with Koei. It turns out that this choice provides Tecmo with "a greater chance of boosting corporate value," whch basically means that merging with Koei wouldn't have the company swallowed whole by the huge Square Enix. They can still maintain some identity this way.

Square Enix isn't willing to call it quits, however. Their original buyout offer was for $206 million and they're planning to further investigate the terms of the Koei and Tecmo merger. We guess we'll be hearing more about this in the future.

[Via Joystiq]

With the Xbox 360 dropping in price later this week, many are looking at one of the console's particular SKUs because, well, it's going to be cheaper than the Wii. For almost 2 years, the Wii has been the cheapest option on the market, so how could this lower price affect the Wii's standing as top sales dog? Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian says Microsoft may see stronger sales, but doesn't "anticipate either Nintendo or Sony to match the Xbox 360 price cut."

The Wii is in good standing and really doesn't need to cut its price, so we're not expecting Nintendo to do so, either. But, if Microsoft manages to start taking away some of Nintendo's sales, we wouldn't be surprised to hear about a price cut early next year or, if sales drop that much, this holiday. We're not expecting sales to shift that dramatically, though.